The king of enjoyably snarky Facebook politicians, Anthony Weiner, has self-destructed, leaving a great void. Luckily, a queen has arrived to fill that much-needed space: State Senator Diane J. Savino, who we interviewed about the possible legalization of medical marijuana in New York last week.

A Democrat representing district 23 (a mishmash of Staten Island and Brooklyn that includes Sunset Park, Coney Island, and parts of Bensonhurst), Savino belongs to the breed of politicians that utilize their Facebook pages to be brutally and awesomely honest. You won’t find too many milquetoast proclamations here. Scroll down to July 27th, and Savino has linked to a New York Timeseditorial outlining Senator Harry Reid’s and House Speaker John Boehner’s plans to avert (the now temporarily averted) crisis to raise the debt ceiling. Savino’s commentary: “They both suck!”

Very true. Scroll past the pictures of Senator Savino’s new car (pictured, “And I LOVE this car!” exults one commenter) and such aphorisms as “one man’s pork is another man’s necessity” and you find the comment that has ignited a local political brouhaha. “Meet the new mafia…the Tea Party!” Savino wrote on Monday, linking to a Timeseditorial about the Tea Party’s role in skewing the debt debate. Staten Island Republican bigwig Guy Molinari was not too pleased, telling the Staten Island Advance, “To equate members of the Tea Party, good Americans and citizens, with the murderous criminals of organized crime is a deplorable action.”

Savino counterattacked yesterday by writing on Facebook, “here is my challenge to all of my supporters, flood the Staten Island Advance with letters and comments.” Okay, so you should probably not call the Tea Party the mafia. On the other hand, calling them “good Americans and citizens” is a far more egregious offense.